Privacy, encryption vs. Surveillance state

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I hope this hasn't already been posted.

I Built My Own Flock Camera. Then Police Came to My Door.

Oct 7, 2026
I built a camera to watch police cars. Then two officers showed up at my front door. That sent me deeper into Flock, surveillance, and what is happening in my own neighborhood.


36:29

RESOURCES MENTIONED
- Plate Privacy Project by IJ - records requests and local action: https://plateprivacy.com/
- DeFlock - camera map: https://deflock.org/
-Have I Been Flocked - available search audit logs: https://haveibeenflocked.com/

SOURCES
- https://gist.github.com/AtotheY/0060f...

SPECIAL THANKS
Thank you to everyone who gave their time and helped me understand this story:
- Jonathan Coffman - Pflugerville City Council
- Sue Wilson - Richmond City Council https://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/directo...
- Kade Crockford - ACLU of Massachusetts https://www.aclu.org/bios/kade-crockford
- Robert Frommer - Institute for Justice https://ij.org/staff/rfrommer/
- Lisa Femia - Electronic Frontier Foundation https://www.eff.org/about/staff/eliza...
- Chris Parsons - Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario https://www.ipc.on.ca/en/speaker/chri...

- And everyone who stopped to speak with me on the street (even if I was wearing a fugitive outfit lmao)
 

pmbug

@pmbug
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Smart devices=surveillance devicesUntil there is a sea change in market demand and manufacturers respect that customers own the device usage data, smart devices are a dumb idea. Why peeps want to pay a company to spy on them or sell their data is beyond me.


It's because they're stupid. It's like nobody gives a rats ass about being spied on, just so long as they get a cookie.
 
www.biometricupdate.com

ICE builds nationwide ERO intelligence layer around biometric targeting operations | Biometric Update

ICE plans a $100M-plus ERO ONE analyst network linking field offices and national centers that process biometric and biographic identity queries.
www.biometricupdate.com www.biometricupdate.com

www.aclu.org

$100 Million ICE “Intelligence” Program is a Domestic Secret Police Agency in the Making | ACLU

Administration that has ordered agencies to target activists and nonprofits would hire “intelligence” agents within ICE to identify “threats” and investigate “relationships”
www.aclu.org www.aclu.org
 
Get a load of this.

Malibu puts up speed cameras for ten days as a test, and gets 100,000 violations.

Imagine if every Flock camera turns into a ticket issuing camera.


 
The nonsense in Switzerland is over.

Police begin enforcing the ban on burqas in public spaces against a group of Muslim women protesting by breaking the rule at a train station.

Multiculturalism in Switzerland is over.

 
Kansas City suburb Excelsior Springs bagged their Flock cameras and then discovered that the camera's infrared system was still capturing data.

 
ij.org

Institute for Justice Asks Federal Appeals Court to Make Clear that Using License Plate Readers to Track People is a Fourth Amendment Search - Institute for Justice

ARLINGTON, Va.—Today, the Institute for Justice (IJ) filed an amicus brief in United States v. Sturdivant, asking the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to […]
ij.org ij.org

www.eff.org

We’re Asking an Appeals Court to Require a Warrant for ALPR Searches

Today, along with the ACLU, EFF filed an amicus brief in the Sixth Circuit court of appeals in United States v. Sturdivant, a case where police warrantlessly tracked a suspect’s movements using Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) data. Our brief details the vast, interconnected network of ALPRs...
www.eff.org www.eff.org
 
pmbug said:
Kansas City suburb Excelsior Springs bagged their Flock cameras and then discovered that the camera's infrared system was still capturing data.

Click to expand...


Not saying anyone would, or should ever do this, but if one happened to be spray painting something near a flock camera and accidently got some overspray on the lens of said camera, it would still be able to see and take pictures?


Edited to add: asking for a friend.
 
Not sure, but I'm guessing if the solar collection panel was painted, it would run out of power.
 
Here's something I just found out.


The man who died in that Leer jet crash in Florida last week, was the head of a tech company that makes software that identifies anonymous users on websites.
 
Driver gets speeding citation for car she doesn't own

Nov 12, 2026
Speed cameras are supposed to catch drivers breaking the law but one Philadelphia woman says she got a ticket for a car that wasn’t hers. NBC10 Responds reporter Valeria Aponte-Feliciano takes a closer look at the citation.


3:18
 
Flock sent police after us. So we went after Flock

Nov 12, 2026
A Flock camera error sends police to take down an innocent driver. It’s a nightmare scenario—but it actually happened to us. Here’s what we did about it.
Flock Safety is now one of the most controversial companies in America. Its network of over 120,000 AI-powered cameras is scanning 20 billion license plates every month, tracking the movements of tens of millions of people, hunting for crime. And it’s sparked a massive backlash as fears mount over mass surveillance, misuse by police, and innocent drivers being targeted in dangerous situations.
That’s exactly what happened to Joel Feder, The Drive’s director of content and product, who was ambushed by police one Sunday in June while test driving a new Range Rover in Minnesota. Four cop cars boxed him in, and the officers ordered him and his wife out of the vehicle. After searching them for weapons, the officers told him he was being detained for possible grand theft auto because Flock had flagged the Range Rover’s license plate as stolen.
Joel was held for nearly an hour before police realized they screwed up. The plate wasn’t actually stolen—Flock’s alert was wrong. They let him go with a warning: drive straight home, because they couldn’t stop Flock from continuing to track him and send other police departments after him. And next time, they might come at him with weapons drawn.
We were furious. Why did Flock tell police the plate was stolen? How could this happen. Why does this keep happening? And what isn’t Flock doing to prevent it? We decided to use our platform to get some answers.
Over weeks of reporting, we uncovered the full story of how Flock’s nationwide scale and frightening lack of internal safeguards and basic foresight is leading to dangerous wrongful stops like this. We learned the exact combination of mistakes by police and Flock that put Joel in harm’s way. And we got face to face with Flock’s CEO to press for change.
This is how it all went down.


20:52

Listen to our full interview with Flock CEO Garrett Langley here:
- https://open.spotify.com/episode/3nv8...
- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...

Read Joel's reporting here:
- https://www.thedrive.com/news/how-flo...
- https://www.thedrive.com/news/inside-...
- https://www.thedrive.com/news/my-city...
- https://www.thedrive.com/news/flock-j...
 
This guy makes his own "Flock" camera to track police cars driving by his house, and ends up getting a visit from the police because they are concerned about privacy. Lol


 
I ran some errands today. There are a couple of Flock cameras on each side of one of the main arteries leading in/out of my city at a small bridge. Today as I passed I noticed that the cameras were missing from the poles. The poles and solar panels were still intact, but the cameras were gone. Not sure if it was the work of vandals or the city, but I was glad to see it.
 
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